your first deer

[lever-4-life]

What Gun did you use to kill your first deer? How old were you? How big was it?

Mine was a Big california 4-point (9 point eastern count) blacktail, I was 15 and I used my grandma's model 94 30-30.

[kimwcook]

I was 12, shot a freak white tail doe with my own Antique Win. 94 in 30-30 that I got for Christmas.

[marlinman93]

My first deer was a Blacktail shot around Vernonia, Or. using an Argentine Mauser 1891 in full military trim! Paid a whoppin $15 for the gun! (think my box of Norma ammo cost the same!) It was a beautiful 5x4, and the old 7.65 Mauser did a great job. I was 18 years old, and this was also my first deer hunt.
I shot him within minutes of stepping away from my car and I just couldn't understand why everyone thought this deer hunting was so difficult!
Of course I found out in years to come, after going the next 5 years without a shot! Still got that rack hanging on the family room wall!-Vall

[iceman]

I was 17 used a Savage 99 in 300 savage. I sure wish I hadn't traded that one.

[spaceman spiff]

I used a 1925 30-30 SRC That at the time belonged to my Dad, handed down to him from my grandpa. I was 27 and it was a big fat old doe. Dressed out to 140. DNR guy that inspected her said she was probably 7 1/2 or 8 1/2 yrs old, teeth worn down to nubs. Thank God for the crock pot!!!

Regards,

[JerryB]

I shot my first deer in 1952, 14 and used an uncles new Winchester 94 .32spl.Been hooked on Winchester ever since.

Jerry

[TedH]

I was 10 years old. Shot a small doe with Dad's Winchester 94 30-30. I remember it like it was yesterday, not 27 years ago.

[Leverdude]

I didn't shoot a deer until I was 29. Had been shooting for years but had nobody to take me hunting that first time. Ended up hooking up with my youngest uncle who I never knew hunted. Anyhow, the first day of my first hunt I shot a doe with my 7mm08 BLR before 8:00 AM. I bought the gun especially because uncle Rich said I might get a long shot. I think it was a 60 yard shot maybe. I dont know what she weighed, was a nice deer tho. We just cut them up.
We all 3 got deer that morning & 2 more before we left. Like Vall said, I thought it was easy but found out right quick that, sometimes they just aint there.

This is the place, it got sold last year, Lotta great memories there wether we got any deer or not.



life goes on.

[AmBraCol]

I was 29 years old. Shot a Colorado mulie with a P17 Enfield in 30-06 that I'd picked up at the gun show. Used a 165 gr Hornady BTSP over a healthy dose of Win 760, a load that gave me a cloverleaf group at 100 yards. It was a little forkhorn buck, still running with his mother and brother (same mis-shapen style to the right antler). First time I went after mulies. Had hunted white tail in MO for years and never got a shot. Got an elk the first time I went after them too. It wasn't 'til last year that I finally got a chance on white tail, filled all my tags and my brother's freezer.

[salvo]

I was 12, used my dads 1949 Marlin 336A 30-30 to drop my first mule deer.

[veeman]

I was 25, 1988, used my grandpa's Stevens 720 12gauge. It was a nice 8 point basket rack buck, 1 1/2 year old. My wife at that time thought it should be mounted. Looks pretty small next to my 22" 8pnt and 19" 11 pnt mounts, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

[20cows]

I was 30 years old and had never seen a deer when I had a gun in my hand during deer season.

I was at a friend's place doing my first hunting from a blind. On the last morning I finally see a little bitty doe. She came all the way to my blind, but I kept my rifle on my knees and waited for a BUCK! After she goes into some brush, I decided that this was going to by the only chance and I'd better take it.

The next time I saw her was at 125 yards.

Now the best part...

The rifle I had was the first gun I had bought for myself right out of high school- a Winchester Model 94. I converted it from the standard carbine to a 26" rifle. Then two days before this hunt I got it back from a gunsmith after a rebore to .38-55.

Whooee! what a mess that 220 gr Hornady made!

[Lastmohecken]

It was 1978 and I was 20 yrs old. I had already been hunting deer for ten years with an assortment of guns. Deer hunting back then was tough, in my part of the world there wasn't that many deer, not like now. My grandpa had killed several, and he could remember when there wasn't any deer at all in our area.

Up until that time, I only got to hunt a couple of days a year, but that year, I said to heck with college, for that week and I hunted hard all week, killed two coyotes, and my first deer on a Saturday after hunting for 5 days straight. It was 200yd shot down a long hill, and the deer was standing in the sun. It was only a 4 point but a very respectable deer for that time and place. Even though I hadn't killed a deer before, I was good shot, and shot a lot. I had a glass beded Remington 700 bolt action in .270 win. with a Weaver 2x7 widefield scope on it and a Canjar trigger. I couldn't even see the horns, but I could see the sun glinting off of his ears and I knew he had to have horns, I took the shot offhand, because there was nothing for a rest and I was standing in tall sage grass.

I hit him in the top of the back, and he fell right there. It was a Big day for me. I killed my first deer with a bow the following year.

[Dewight]

1960 I got a 3X2 with my Dad's Remington Model 141 .32Rem. He bought it in 1938 when he was 17years old. I got it when he passed away.

[spaceman spiff]

pretty gun, 20cows.......

Regards,

[FWiedner]

As I recall, I was in my mid 20's and I was sitting alone in a blind box at the bottom of a hill on my Dad's property in the Texas hill country.

My dad had been putting corn down, and I was staring at a pile of it about 40 yards away, thinking about how much my Dad's stand smelled like cigarette smoke, and wanting to get up to take a leak.

I got bored and nodded off.

I woke up, and there was a scrawny buck eating the corn. I took aim on him with my old 336 and made a spine shot that was perfect to ruin the front half of both back-straps. He dropped without taking a step and died with his face in the corn.

I remember wearing the hide off one side of that buck dragging him up a rocky hill to the cabin. I though he was darned heavy for such a small critter.

[dkmlever]

I was 23 and used my new ruger M77 in 257 Roberts in PA, small three point. Boy was I happy, I yelled so lound that my uncle down the valley heard me.

[71fan]

1985...I was 12 and on a wilderness horsepack hunt with my dad and uncles in central Nevada. That was the first year I could legally deer hunt in Nevada. I had saved my my paper route and 4H pig money for three years starting when I was 10, and when I hit 12 we went to Longs Drugs and bought my first deer rifle - a Winchester 70 Featherweight in 243. I used the last of the money to buy a Bushnell Sportview 3-9 and a Redfield one-piece mount out of Cabelas, and I was set. Dad bought all the ammo because I was tapped. I shot an average size 3-point muley at about 250 yards with the first shot, on opening day.

Very fond memories...like it was yesterday.

[BlaineCGarverakaTubbyTuba]

1980 was the second year I had gone deer hunting. I was using a Model 37 Deerslayer 20ga smoothbore slug bbl. Jefferson Proving Grounds special hunt (Indiana).

[El Chivo]

Well, I remember it like it was yesterday because it practially was. I'm still eating him. I was 48 and it was my first year of hunting. I'd yet to shoot any animal - I missed on a couple of small game shots earlier in the year and deer season just rolled around.

I'd been out six times already in the season and was still learning about my area. I did a lot of climbing and hiking and saw only a quick glimpse of doe. Finally it came to the last day of the season. When the alarm went off at 3 am (I got to sleep about midnight due to some loud neighbors) I almost rolled over and went back to sleep. But a piece of advice that "your time will come" from levergunner George Tatom made me roll out of bed.

There was a windstorm that night and there were several branches blown down in the road on the way in. I got off to my earliest start yet, and was well up the trail by first light. I loaded two rounds and cycled one into the chamber, and put the hammer on half cock. I had not put an aperture into the peep sight yet. I passed a campground shortly after, and as birds were chirping I crossed into hunting territory.

Some of these magpies make so much noise in the leaves, you'd think there was a huge animal in there. I went behind a tree to check out the noise, and after seeing nothing, and making plenty of noise myself, went back on my way. I was looking up ahead through the foliage of the next tree when I saw what looked like a neck.

I thought "No Way" because many times I see things that look like legs and necks but turn out to be tree trunks and branches. So I stopped and kept looking, and sure enough, it moved. Then I thought, well, this has to be a doe - I'm not that lucky. Well, he poked his head out of the foliage enough for me to see forked antlers - a barely legal mule deer buck.

I clicked my hammer and sighted in on him. I considered taking a shot through the foliage. With the 35 Remington 200 grain slug, it might have worked out. But he was concentrating on feeding, and not paying attention to anything else. There were a few lucious green shoots of grass out in the open, and he came out to get them, giving me a perfect broadside shot at about 20 yards.

Then I began to ask myself if I really wanted to do this. He was a magnificent animal, by the way. I realized if I shot him, I was responsible for dealing with the consequences. I had no partner to help me with him. I didn't think I was going to even see a deer, I'd never skinned one, gutted one, and I was three miles from the trailhead.

But I realized God had given me such a golden opportunity in my first season, I had to capitalize on it. I also realized I had all day to figure out what to do. So I stood as tall as I could (so the bullet would lodge in the dirt) and fired.

Well this was probably the loudest sound the buck or I had ever heard, and he leapt up immediately to get the hell out of there. But when he came down things weren't working right for him. He tried a second leap but cartwheeled down into a heap. He was down in about 3-4 seconds. I ran around behind him and watched. I'm pretty sure he expired within 30 seconds. But I waited about 5 minutes before approaching.

After that, things were very quiet. No magpies or squirrels announcing themselves. No hummingbirds buzzing by. I thought I heard voices saying "He killed Kenny!" but that could have been my imagination. I spent a few minutes shaking like a leaf, then I knelt down and thanked God for the experience and that it went smoothly - a clean kill, no tracking, minimal suffering, etc.

Then I set to the task of gutting him. I'd read a set of instructions about it, and knew basically what needed to be done. The first thing I found out was that deer are not shaped right for laying on their backs. I rolled him over and had an awkward time balancing him. I decided to dig a hole with my handy trowel and rest him in it. This worked pretty well. I carefully slit the skin of the belly with a brand new Buck knife I had ordered the week before. I didn't nick his bladder or anything. I extended the slit up to the solar plexus and rolled him back over. This poured most of his guts right into the hole I dug. Some things needed detatching, but overall this went very cleanly and quickly. I sewed him up with a fishing stringer, tied my rope around his neck, and got ready to drag.

Well, he seemed to be cemented to the ground. It took me a while to budge him, it took nearly all my strength to move him two feet. Then I discovered the principle of applied leverage, that by staying low and leaning into the rope, I could pull him 3-4 steps at a time. Then I managed to pull 6 steps. I decided to make 6 steps my goal. I would pull 6 steps and rest.

I finally got him back to the campground, where there were trees and picnic tables. I considered leaving him there, and coming back with more equipment, but I was afraid to leave him alone. I knew I'd never manage to hang him up by myself, so I decided to just drag now and worry about the rest later. At least it was downhill most of the way.

Ok, so it's already too late to make a long story short, but I spent the next 5 hours pulling him 6 steps at a time. I did plenty of whooping and hollering over my unexpected luck during that time. I rigged the rope to lift his rear legs a little which saved the meat (I did lose one front shoulder). I dressed him in one of my shirts to minimize the rubbing but eventually wore a hole clean through the skin.

It was a good cool morning, but I used all my water plus two bottles I'd stashed along the way the week before. By the time I was in sight of the car, the ticks were starting to jump ship.

Sure enough, just as I dragged him past the trailhead, 3 guys came by in a pickup truck. We talked for a while, they had taken some deer out of there as well. I brought my car around but was too weak to lift him into the car. Two of the guys helped me get him into the car.

Then they said, "See you next year"...

[Hobie]

What Gun did you use to kill your first deer? How old were you? How big was it?

Mine was a Big california 4-point (9 point eastern count) blacktail, I was 15 and I used my grandma's model 94 30-30.

My own Marlin 336RC .30-30, Williams FP, 40 yards, not sure of the year. I've got the tag with blood on it around here someplace.

[AmBraCol]

Well, I remember it like it was yesterday because it practially was. I'm still eating him. I was 48 and it was my first year of hunting.

Congratulations! And thanks for sharing that. Each time I get a critter I stand in awe of the majesty of life. Some folks don't get it, "How can you kill an animal and say that you respect him?" There's no way anyone can convince me to eat blood sausage and such. To my way of thinking it goes back to the ground where the animal was taken, just like the Lord told Noah, "Eat 'em, but leave the blood which is their life." My nephew thought I was nuts for taking a picture of a squirrel we shot and the rifle I took it with. It's all about the memories and the good eating.

Anyway, thanks again for the story.

[Cimarron Red]

1963 near my family's camp in the Allegheny National Forest, McKean County, Pennsylvania. I was 16 and was carrying a pre-WWII M98 Mauser in 8 x 57 mm stocked and sporterized by my dad. The gun wore a Redfield Model 80 receiver sight with hunter-style adjusting knobs. It was a small-racked deer, four points, typical of 'Big Woods' Pennsylvania deer in those days. But that deer was, and remains, the trophy of my life, a treasure to a gun-struck kids who earned his rite of passage and now would add his tales to the hunting and gun talk of the elders gathered before the great stone fireplace in that small cabin north of Kane.

I regret to say that that Mauser was stolen some fifteen years later in a burglary at my parent's home. My dad is gone now, the cabin is no longer in our family and I seldom get to McKean County, but autumn reverie often takes me back to that long-ago day at the head of the 'basin' just down the ridge fron 'notch hollow.' Thomas Wolfe tells us we can't go home again. I prefer Maya Angelou's observation that 'you never leave home; it is in the very bat of your eye.'

[cnjarvis]

I took my first on Nov. 23, 2002. I was a mere 28 y.o. at the time in my 3rd season of hunting.
I had been sitting behind a makeshift blind of a small cedar overlooking a creek bottom where 3 draws converged when a group of does including this lil' fella came moving past me from behind at around 15 yards. I managed to get a shot at this one. I was using a Sig SHR 970 in 270 Win. topped with a Leupold Vari-x 2, 3-9x50.

[jengel]

about 1987 or so when I was about 14, I shot a Mule deer doe with a custom Mauser in .243 with open sights.

[DerekR]

My first was with my first deer rifle...Marlin 336 in .35 Remington. It was a 5 point with an ugly rack, but he was a Boone & Crockett to me! He came running by my stand and I fired. I remember being somewhat amazed when he dropped where he was. He kicked a few times and I shot him again! I was 15 years old.

[papabear]

mine was a button buck i shot it with a 35 marlin using a Remington with a 200 grain bullet in 1985 if i find the pic i will post it

[EdinCT]

I shot my first deer at 20 years old with a Thompson Center Hawkin 50 cal. It was a 42 lb doe and I shot her while I still hunted through a valley.My first cap went off but the charge didn't so I eased another cap on. I never realized how small she wasuntil I walked up to her. I felt kind of foolish for shooting a skipper but has I dragged her out and got to my truck a man driving by stopped. He said he had hunted for 18 years and had never got a deer and how he wished he could get one like it.
My sons all got deer when they were young and say what took you so long to get one. I tell them that I really remember my Grandfather taking all his grand kids to look at a deer track in his North lot.Thats how times have changed in CT and they have never seen a partrige or quail in the woods and we shot them daily growing up!

[plattski]

My first deer was a nice 4 point mule deer shot above the north fork of the John Day River in Oregon in 1976 when I was 16, with the Browning auto 300 win mag I bought with my paper route money. My dad didn't hunt and didn't like guns but he could see that's what I wanted and let me find my own way (altough I could have used some advice that I didn't need that much gun for deer hunting! Now I'm a big fan of the .308).

I got to go with my best buddy from high school who's dad always hunted the ranch of one of his Navy buddies from the war. The meat from that deer is long gone but his antlers still hang above the gate in my side yard, squirrel chewed and bleached from sun, and I look at them and remember that cold November morning.

[CEMENTHEAD]

WELL IT WAS 1989, IN A PLACE CALLED RAPELJIE MONTANA, I WAS A WET BEHIND THE EARS, 18 YEAR OLD KNOW IT ALL. SOOOO I BOUGHT A WINCHESTER MODEL 70 IN 270 BECAUSE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOU SHOOT MULIES AT 300+ YDS . LO AND BEHOLD I SHOT MY FIRST DEER, A 1 X 2, THAT DRESSED 150 LBS, @ YOU GUESSED IT 41 PACES! I'VE BEEN HOPELESSLY ADDICTED EVER SINCE! THE PHOTO IS A PICTURE OF A PICTURE. I DON'T HAVE A SCANNER, YET.[img][img]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee26 ... ctures.jpg[/img][/img]

[lubbockdave]

my first came when I was about 7 or 8 yrs old-loved to go hunting with dad and I think he let me carry a gun just to keep me quiet...anyhow my first was a doe, running-shot her in the hind quarters...she was one of 4-buck was in the lead and the does were in the rear. NEVER should have pulled the trigger, but I did and my grandpa's old single shot .410 shooting slugs knocked her down. had to finish the job with my dad's 357 revolver...on the 6th shot (missed the first 5). Wish I had made a better shot, but that is how it happened.

that Christmas Santa brought me a NEF 22 hornet...much to my mothers dismay!

I sure do miss my dad.

Dave

[meanc]

Mine was a doe w/ a Remington 7400 30-06. I was 16. Really didn't want to shoot it. But oh, how I love some good venison.

[Buffboy]

First was a 4X4 whitetail, I was 16, 1972 was the year. The gun used was my new(then) Remington 700 ADL in 270win, WW130gr silvertips, the factory iron sights. The rack still hangs in my bedroom.

[Longfin]

I guess I was around 23 years old and my first deer was a doe I shot at around 30-40 yards with my S&W Model 28 4" in .357. I did a lot of shooting with that revolver and had good eyes and a steady hand at that age. Put a 158 grains JSP in her ear and that was that.

[cubrock]

I was 17. It was about a 130 pound 6-point (only 18 months old, so a pretty decent buck for NC for its age). I shot it in the neck at about 15 yards with a .270. I was hunting on the ground (couldn't afford a tree stand) and wound up sitting on the trail he was using. He was walking with the wind at his tail. I lucked up and picked a funnel that forced him to do that. All in all, a very memorable experience, especially trying to get him in the trunk of a 1977 Toyota Corolla!

[Comal Forge]

I shot a doe when I was 12 with an old Remington 11 and buckshot. It was cold and I was so bundled up, I couldn't mount it properly. Took three shots but she finally went down dead - range was about 30 yds and my grandpa was tickled pink. The whole family used to turn out for someone's first deer and this was a family reunion weekend at the family homestead - I remember my aunts and uncles who were there coming out to the barn to offer congratulations.

[RICHP]

It was 1968, at age 13. The buck had 8 points, shot him with a 6.5 Italian Carcano my dad gave five dollars for at the local hardware store.

[gunslinger598]

I got a late start on Big game.

I was 32 years old when I killed my first deer.

It was my first hunt and I was living in Colorado at the time.

I was shooting an Interarms Mark X 30.06 which I still own and will own until the scatter my ashes.

It was the longest shot I have ever made.

3 shots to be precise. The first shot went over is back, he just stood there looking at me, I then lowered the cross hairs to the bottom of is belly line and fired sent it right through the lungs, it spun him around but still standing. remember this is my first big game hunt, I had been thinking in my mind for weeks, as soon as I get a shot jack another round and try to get him in my sights again. This is exactly what I did and was able to put a second shot in him from the other side in almost the same spot as the first. I was up on a mountain side shooting down into a valley. I never did try to measure the shot it was getting dark. When I first spotted him he was so far away I couldn't even see antlers. Once I put the scope on him I could barely count the points. he was only a 3 pt, but weighed 205 lbs field dressed. His head ornament is on the wall behind me now.

Since that time I have only made one other long shot, but not quite that far. The rest of the shots have been fairly close 50 to 60 yards max many much closer.

The details of the first one stay with ya, heck they all do I reckon.

So far most every deer I have killed have dropped on the spot except that first one. He still ran about 30 yards. His last kicking the brush movements is what helped me find him.

[Dastook]

1969, I was 12 years old. Walking up a ridge, looked to my right and saw about 20 mulees grazing on a hill side about 150 yds. away. Pulled up my Win. 94, SRC 30-30 and peeled off a snap shot (I didn't even aim just shot into the middle). A little button hit the ground. Proudest day of my young life.

[2ndovc]

I was about 26. I had just gotten a Win. 95 SRC in 30-06 that had been worked over by it's previous owner with a pad and receiver sight so I got it pretty cheap.

It was at my Ex, FIL's farm in Michigan. A couple doe had walked out on the trail followed by a nice size 6 pionter. Shot him through the heart at @ 60 yds. He ran down the hill then back up and went down about 10 yds from the trail.


jasonB

[Old Ironsights]

I was 16 (?)

Shot a Muley doe with a Savage 99E in .308, then went dry for the next 23 years.

[GANJIRO]

I'd been hunting pigs since I was a young teenager but due to no deers on my home island of Oahu didn't get to deer hunt (island of Lana'i) until I was 27 (over 20 years ago). The deer was a button buck which I thought was a doe (all deer legal with single tag), and he was taken using a model 70 Winchester 30-06 which I inherited from my Dad-in-law (thanks Bert ).

[RIHMFIRE]

Well I was 16 years old, 1976...I used an old remington 870 smooth bore shotgun.. I was hunting behind my house in the appalachian mountains in
upstate new york...in between two mountains in the saddle...
Shot a fout point just as he was mounting a doe...I'll never forget that day.. Dragged that deer almost a mile...down hill, thank god...it weighed
160 pounds field dressed...

[pharmseller]

It was opening day in Oregon, 1982. The day before my 19th birthday. I was carrying my first rifle, a Winchester model 70 XTR in .30/06, bought entirely by me from earnings from my job as a bottle sorter at the local Mayfair grocery store, and augmented by my other job as a tree planter (paid by the tree, a whopping 4 cents). Bessie was topped by a Leupold M8 4X scope in Buehler rings and bases.
We were hunting mulies in a road closure unit outside of Prarie City. We hiked in a few miles and set up camp 2 days prior. The evening before opening day I took a walk down the logging road. I saw a few deer, including a couple of young bucks. I knew where I was going to hunt the next day!
At first light I snuck down the road, full of expectation. When I got to my honey hole, you guessed it - no deer. I waited a while, then continued down the road. I got maybe 50 yards and saw movement down the hill to my right. There, about 60 yards through the puckerbrush, I saw a buck's head and main beams. Too thick to see more. On instinct, as if I had shot deer every day, I thumbed the safety off, swung the rifle to my shoulder, centered his neck in the crosshairs, and squeezed the trigger.
BOOM! I never heard the shot, and neither did the buck. The 180 grain Federal Premium Nosler Partition shattered his spine about a foot below his head. I saw hooves in the air, then nothing. By the time I got down to him the big 4X4 (I might never shoot another as big) was dead.
My dad got a buck that day as well, a 30-incher. Both of those bucks are now on the wall.
I've shot over 25 deer since that day, but you know what they say - you never forget your first. I still have the Winchester, too.

Quinn

[Old Time Hunter]

Oh boy, makes me have to really dig down deep into the memory bin! First started hunt'n deer back when I was 12, but according to the rules of the camp, not allowed to carry a weapon until I was 14. Then that was only under the supervision of a chaperone until 16. My Grandpa let me use his Stevens single shot 25-20 and I was escorted by "Horace", whom made me promise not to shoot at a deer with that gun unless I could hit it within rock throwing distance. Well, I managed to hit a doe with the rock, but the critter was too fast and hid before I could get the rifle up to my shoulder. Horace laughed at that memory for darn near thirty five years till he passed on. Next year at the ripe old age of 15, I nailed a doe (probably the same one) with my Grandpa's '92 .44-40 from about sixty yards. Went down with two shots, probably only needed one, but Horace said always shoot twice in case the first one only scared it.

[SMP]

I got mine with a Marlin 336CS in 35 Rem.I was on the side of a swamp at the end of the day and a 4 point walked out of the timber on he other side of the swamp.I raised the gun and pulled the trigger......click.The saftey was still on.The deer stopped and looked in my direction and I recocked the hammer,took off the safety,and nailed him. I don't ever think I saw a deer drop as fast as that one.I was pretty happy to say the least and I 've been hooked on Marlins ever since.

[Nath]

I think I was 30 when I got my first roe doe, I,d been trying for a year. 40yds in thick timber in the back of the neck with a Rem 700 243. I felt very humbled. I had also forgot my knife and was anxiouse to get the guts out so I broke a key ring that wqas very hard and used it,s sharp edge where it snapped to open her up. I managed to hang her puddins out untill help arrived. While I was opening her up I had a buck that kept coming out to check me and barking his head off at me- it was a good experiance.
There is some fantastic stories on here

[James Riley]

"Deer" family (elk), 1975, 30-30 at thirty feet, October 30th, through the neck.

[/img]

First deer was 3X4 muley with a Rem. 700 BDL, 30-06. Since then, it's been muzzle loaders and long bows.

[AJMD429]

First deer was when I was about 42 years old, and it was a beautiful 42-pointer! with antlers as smooth as beech limbs

The one I was aiming at was a nice 6 pointer, and is probably deaf, since the 1800fps saboted 'slug' exited my barrel (into the beech limb below the line of sight of my scope and maybe 10" in front of the barrel) a mere 30-40 feet from where he had been standing peacefully and waiting to be shot broadside.

Lesson: don't spend all summer practicing shooting milk jugs on the deer trails which crisscross your stand area with a HANDGUN, then at the last minute switch to a SHOTGUN, unless you realize the nearby limbs are much harder to see with the long gun.

A couple hours later I think I got his sister, though.

[336A]

First deer that i got was when I was 16. I used my Mossberg 500 12 GA with the then new Win sabot slug. The shot was 60yd, the doe dropped at the shot and didn't even twitch.